Chapter 82. Even If It's a Lie, If I'm Happy (1)
Chapter 82. Even If It's a Lie, If I'm Happy (1)
"...What the hell is that."
The idea that she would welcome even the people who loved the same person she herself loved.
The sheer absurdity of that statement made Ymir burst out laughing before she knew it.
"How did you even arrive at that conclusion? Trying to accept a woman who's been intimate with your lover like that."
As if obsession could turn into a rampage, she wondered if the magnanimity a hero was supposed to possess had likewise veered off into something so bizarre.
"I don't mind if you think it's strange. I've made up my mind to do it, and I'm going to keep working toward it."
The quiet serenity that followed felt ironic, yet in Serika, who was looking down at her, there wasn't the faintest trace of pretense.
She was an inexperienced kid who wasn't good at lying, so this had to be genuine.
They bickered, and plenty of things about them didn't mesh.
"So I want you not to hate me, Ymir. Sincerely."
She said she wanted this awkward bond between them to become a proper connection, starting from the person they both held in their hearts, strengthening the party's unity.
'...I thought she was just a child.'
Well, even if it wasn't normal, you could call it a result of growth.
She'd considered it strange at first, but she didn't think it was purely a bad thing.
Whatever happened, they were fated to be together from now on.
In a situation like that, rather than giving up either personal feelings or the greater cause, she'd boldly made the difficult decision to grasp both.
Wasn't that a conclusion she—who knew she ought to abandon her feelings for him yet still couldn't find her way—could never have imagined?
"...There's a misunderstanding. I didn't particularly hate you."
That decision had given her an option where she didn't need to abandon her own feelings......
Ymir felt a bitterness toward that kind of fate, but at least for now, she decided not to deny her own heart.
"To be honest, the time I've spent with you all has been more enjoyable than the life I lived before."
Even if she couldn't affirm it yet, she could at least follow the person in front of her a little way.
Whether she'd affirm or deny her heart—that decision wouldn't be too late to make after seeing the end of the journey ahead.
"......Ymir."
Serika's expression grew steadily brighter at the words spoken with that sentiment.
That was clearly a reaction born from feeling empathy and kinship, a sense of someone siding with her.
Just as she thought that and began to gradually open her heart toward her, Ymir likewise began to smile fondly at Serika.
"Yeah, because it really was enjoyable."
A smile so bright it had never once crossed the face of someone who had lived abandoning all ties with people.
Wearing the brightest expression imaginable.
"Teasing you has been the most rewarding time of my life, so wouldn't it be weird if I hated you?"
"Don't say such trashy things with such a sunny face!!"
The mood crumbled in an instant.
Serika, her temper thoroughly spoiled, stamped her feet and spat out her anger at Ymir.
"Oh, honestly! I steeled myself and tried to say something nice, and this is what I get! I was an idiot for ever trying to be even a little bit serious with you!"
"Ehehe, don't get so mad~ We can still do the whole big-sis-little-sis thing, get along, improve our relationship. How about calling me 'unnie' for once?"
"The one who kicked that chance away was you, Ymir!"
Serika drew the line by sticking to respectful speech even though she could have called her "unnie," and walked away from the spot.
Ymir, who had been watching those grumbling footsteps, smiled wryly and began to climb the hill after Serika.
'To be honest, I started picking fights because I wanted to kill my obsession with Dave a bit...... but with this mindset, I guess there's no need to provoke her anymore.'
Still, it was true that it had been pretty entertaining, so she decided to just treat her as usual for the time being. She was stifling a chuckle at the thought when, soon enough, as they crested the hill, Ymir realized that Serika, who had been walking ahead, had suddenly stopped in her tracks.
"...What's wrong?"
Was she so mad she was going to take a swing?
"That, over there......"
No, that didn't seem to be it.
Immediately, Ymir looked past Serika's shoulder and saw the campsite Dave must have set up, spreading out before their eyes.
A campfire burning more vividly than any lantern light.
In the center of the pitched tents, someone cloaked in a black mantle was staring vacantly down at the campfire.
"Heira?"
Right, it was their comrade who had arrived there earlier. But where had Dave, who had arrived with her, gone, and why was she keeping watch over the campfire all alone?
No, what bothered her more was Heira's reaction.
With the transcendent senses she'd always displayed, noticing them the moment they crested the hill should have been effortless.
"Heira, are you okay......"
Worried that perhaps she'd been moving constantly while physically drained, the moment they approached her from behind—
"Hyaah!"
Startled by the sudden voice, Heira flinched violently and curled her body up tight. Her trembling form was a reaction they could never have imagined from her, who always maintained her composure.
As if she'd become a completely different person in an instant.
"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was wrong, I won't disobey anymore. So please......"
"...H-Heira?"
"Please don't abandon me. P-Please don't leave me alone......"
Heira bowed her head to the ground, her voice thick with tears.
The sight of her small, trembling hands twisting at the hem of her clothes as she did so was pitiful enough to wring sympathy from anyone, even those who didn't know the circumstances.
"Don't leave me. Please don't leave me. I hate being left behind anymore. Please, don't leave me alone......"
"Heira, snap out of it! Heira!!"
Serika grabbed Heira by the shoulders and shouted urgently.
Only then did Heira come to her senses and face Serika, her eyes growing wide.
"Se-Serika...... Unnie."
Her body was still trembling, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Below her violently shaking eyes, tears were beading up and falling.
A truly wretched sight.
"......Yeah, it's your unnie, Serika."
Serika gently soothed her, stroking Heira's head.
Whatever the reason, she was in an intensely agitated state right now.
So reassuring her took priority over asking for the reason.
"Are you okay? Did you maybe have a bad dream......"
"...N-No."
But Heira didn't even have the composure to accept Serika's consideration.
"It's nothing."
"...Heira?"
"I'm just tired, that's all. So, well, I'll just, go inside, and sleep......"
At that, she shook off Serika's hand and headed for the tent.
Her gait was terribly unsteady, but Serika couldn't bring herself to call Heira back.
She'd had plenty of experience offering physical comfort before, and Heira had always accepted her hand at those times.
Yet now she had forcibly shaken it off. Wouldn't anyone find that abnormal?
"...Did she just use formal speech?"
Ymir also felt no small sense of dissonance at that.
They'd let it slide until now because she was an elf over a hundred years old, but it would be stranger not to notice when an attitude she'd always maintained suddenly shifted.
Maybe something they needed to be wary of had happened to her.
"Now that I think about it."
But what Serika, who had approached Heira earlier, felt was closer to worry than wariness.
"Even though we've been together for a full month, we really don't know anything about Heira."
"...That's right. She's always been so quiet, after all."
Ymir also had no experience spilling her entire past to anyone, but in Heira's case, unlike them, she had no notable name or title to speak of.
And yet she possessed skill comparable to the elf who had originally been scheduled to join the party.
Considering she was a young elf not even a hundred years old, anyone would feel considerable curiosity about her past.
Even more so if that person was a comrade with whom they'd share life and death.
'But when it comes to not knowing a thing about his past, wasn't that guy the same?'
Dave.
Looking back, he was the same as Heira—someone who had never once properly spoken about his past.
The idea that it involved a witch was nothing more than speculation.
She'd kept her distance until now, thinking she had to set aside her feelings for him, but now that Serika had given her permission to hold feelings for him, her rejection of him had grown considerably lighter.
Enough that it led to a desire to get to know him, just a little.
'And it was that guy who brought along this little elf girl.'
Linking that thought to Heira and forming a 'suspicion' was truly instantaneous.
Perhaps.
The thought that the state that girl was in might somehow be connected to him.
"......Hey, shorty, go look for Dave for a bit."
But could she openly voice that right now, when it was still just a suspicion?
Let's approach this cautiously for now. The moment Ymir thought that and spoke while surveying the campsite floor, Serika approached her with a quizzical look.
"Dave?"
"Looking at the footprints leading toward the forest, he probably went to gather firewood or something, but the forest is so dark, who knows what might happen."
"But Heira is......"
"Because of all the quests lately, you two haven't had much time alone together, right?"
It was an excuse disguised as consideration, but it wasn't a statement she could easily ignore.
In reality, they had been so busy with quests that their time alone had been scarce, and she'd had plenty pent up because of it.
"I'll comfort this one, so you go find that guy and spend some time together. Though I don't know if there's anywhere you can rest comfortably in this dark forest."
"......Yes. Okay. Then."
Though she seemed uneasy about the suggestion, Serika ultimately accepted it and headed into the forest, following the footprints.
Ymir approached the tent only after her presence had completely vanished.
'To be honest, the shorty is better suited than me for comfort, but I didn't ask her to leave just so I could comfort the girl.'
Right, she simply wanted to satisfy her own curiosity.
Just like her inexperienced leader whom she'd decided to follow, by accepting this girl who had also come to harbor feelings for him.
And similarly, to indulge her own small, trivial curiosity about him, born from her own feelings for him.
"......Would it be okay if I asked what happened?"
"......"
Heira turned her haggard face toward Ymir at the quiet question.
An answer only came after a long silence had passed.
***
And after combing through the dark forest, Serika found Dave.
"Dave, you're safe, thank good—"
The moment Serika directed her lantern light toward him, her footsteps stopped dead in their tracks, the sight of his face striking terror into her.
Because the emotion painted on his face.
"......Dave?"
Looked so terribly similar to Heira's when she'd faced her earlier.
"What's wrong? Were you crying......"
-Snap!
The sound of a finger snapping echoed out.
And starting with him, her consciousness began to sink toward a place deeper than the darkness that filled the forest.